The Masculine Woman in Weimar Germany
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Th e Masculine Woman in Weimar Germany Monographs in German History Volume 1 Volume 17 Osthandel and Ostpolitik: German Foreign Trade Policies Cultures of Abortion in Weimar Germany in Eastern Europe from Bismarck to Adenauer Cornelie Usborne Mark Spaulding Volume 18 Volume 2 Selling the Economic Miracle: Economic Reconstruction A Question of Priorities: Democratic Reform and and Politics In West Germany, 1949–1957 Economic Recovery in Postwar Germany Mark E. Spicka Rebecca Boehling Volume 19 Volume 3 Between Tradition and Modernity: Aby Warburg and Art From Recovery to Catastrophe: Municipal Stabilization in Hamburg’s Public Realm 1896-1918 and Political Crisis in Weimar Germany Mark A. Russell Ben Lieberman Volume 20 Volume 4 A Single Communal Faith? Th e German Right from Nazism in Central Germany: Th e Brownshirts in Conservatism to National Socialism ‘Red’ Saxony Th omas Rohrämer Christian W. Szejnmann Volume 21 Volume 5 Environmental Organizations in Modern Germany: Citizens and Aliens: Foreigners and the Law in Britain Hardy Survivors in the Twentieth Century and Beyond and the German States, 1789–1870 William T. Markham Andreas Fahrmeir Volume 22 Volume 6 Crime Stories: Criminalistic Fantasy and the Culture of Poems in Steel: National Socialism and the Politics of Crisis in Weimar Germany Inventing from Weimar to Bonn Todd Herzog Kees Gispen Volume 23 Volume 7 Liberal Imperialism in Germany: Expansionism and “Aryanisation” in Hamburg Nationalism, 1848–1884 Frank Bajohr Matthew P. Fitzpatrick Volume 8 Volume 24 Th e Politics of Education: Teachers and School Reform in Bringing Culture to the Masses: Control, Compromise and Weimar Germany Participation in the GDR Marjorie Lamberti Esther von Richthofen Volume 9 Volume 25 Th e Ambivalent Alliance: Konrad Adenauer, the Banned in Berlin: Literary Censorship in Imperial CDU/CSU, and the West, 1949–1966 Germany, 1871–1918 Ronald J. Granieri Gary D. Stark Volume 10 Volume 26 Th e Price of Exclusion: Ethnicity, National Identity, After the ‘Socialist Spring’: Collectivisation and Economic and the Decline of German Liberalism, 1898–1933 Transformation in the GDR E. Kurlander George Last Volume 11 Volume 27 Recasting West German Elites: Higher Civil Servants, Learning Democracy: Education Reform in West Germany, Business Leaders, and Physicians in Hesse between 1945–1965 Nazism and Democracy, 1945–1955 Brian M. Puaca Michael R. Hayse Volume 28 Volume 12 Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists between Th e Creation of the Modern German Army: General Authenticity and Performance Walther Reinhardt and the Weimar Republic, 1914–1930 Timothy S. Brown William Mulligan Volume 29 Volume 13 Th e Political Economy of Germany under Chancellors Th e Crisis of the German Left: Th e PDS, Stalinism and Kohl and Schröder: Decline of the German Model? the Global Economy Jeremy Leaman Peter Th ompson Volume 30 Volume 14 Th e Surplus Woman: Unmarried in Imperial Germany, “Conservative Revolutionaries”: Protestant and Catholic 1871–1918 Churches in Germany After Radical Political Change in Catherine L. Dollard the 1990s Volume 31 Barbara Th ériault Optimizing the German Workforce: Labor Administration Volume 15 from Bismarck to the Economic Miracle Modernizing Bavaria: Th e Politics of Franz Josef Strauss David Meskill and the CSU, 1949–1969 Volume 32 Mark Milosch Th e Masculine Woman in Weimar Germany Volume 16 Katie Sutton Sex,Th ugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll. Teenage Rebels in Cold-War East Germany Mark Fenemore THE MASCULINE WOMAN IN WEIMAR GERMANY Katie Sutton Berghahn Books New York • Oxford Published in 2011 by Berghahn Books www.berghahnbooks.com ©2011 Katie Sutton All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sutton, Katie. Th e masculine woman in Weimar Germany / Katie Sutton. p. cm. — (Monographs in German history ; v. 32) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-85745-120-0 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-85745-121-7 (ebook : alk. paper) 1. Sex role—Germany—History—20th century. 2. Women—Germany—History—20th century. 3. Lesbians—Germany—History—20th century. 4. Gender identity—Germany— History—20th century. 5. Germany—History—1918–1933. I. Title. HQ1075.5.G3S88 2011 305.40943’0904—dc22 2011000413 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Printed in the United States on acid-free paper ISBN: 978-0-85745-120-0 hardback ISBN: 978-0-85745-121-7 ebook CONTENTS List of Figures vi Acknowledgments viii Introduction “Th e Masculinization of Woman” 1 Chapter 1 “Which One Is the Man?” Th e Masculinization of Women’s Fashions 25 Chapter 2 “In the Beginning Th ere Was Sport”: Th e Masculinized Female Athlete 66 Chapter 3 “My Emil Is Diff erent”: Queer Female Masculinities in the Weimar Media 90 Chapter 4 Th e Trouser Role: Female Masculinity as Performance 126 Chapter 5 Beyond Berlin: Female Masculinities in Weimar Fiction 151 Conclusion 181 Bibliography 186 Index 197 FIGURES Figure I.1. “Lotte at the Crossroads.” Simplicissimus, 4 May 1925, 79. 2 Figure 1.1. “Th e Mixed-up Sex.” Uhu, July 1926, 103. 31 Figure 1.2. “Modern Couple.” Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, 9 May 1926, 608. 32 Figure 1.3. Cover image, Garçonne, February 1931. 33 Figure 1.4. “‘Miss Germany’ 1932?” Das Magazin, January 1932, 6806. 35 Figure 1.5. “Th e Latest Acquisition of the Masculine Woman—the Tu xedo.” Das Magazin, August 1926, 761. 36 Figure 1.6. “Now Th at’s Enough! Against the Masculinization of Woman.” Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, 29 March 1925, 389. 38 Figure 1.7. “What Do You Say about Fräulein Mia?” Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, 13 November 1927. 39 Figures 1.8 and 1.9. “Th e Elegant Woman of Today: In the Morning and—the Same Woman (with White Wig) in the Evening—!” Das Magazin, October 1925, 74–75. 40 Figure 1.10. E. Th öny, “Hirschfeldiana.” Simplicissimus, 1 April 1921, 11. 42 Figure 1.11. “Th e Lady of 1925.” Das Magazin, January 1926, 54. 47 Figure 1.12. E. Th öny, “How Bourgeois—the Broad’s Wearing a Bosom,” Simplicissimus, 18 May 1925. 50 Figure 1.13. Karl Arnold, “Th is Issue Belongs to the Lady.” Simplicissimus, 13 February 1928. 51 Figure 1.14. E. Schilling, “Berlin W.” Simplicissimus, 27 November 1932, 417. 53 Figures | vii Figure 1.15. “Naturburschen wanted…” Uhu, August 1931, 25. 56 Figure 1.16. “Th e Story of the Braid that was Chopped Off and then Grew Back.” Uhu, March 1933, 78. 59 Figure 2.1. “A Boxing Star.” Das Magazin, May 1925, 38. 69 Figure 2.2. Steinert, “Women’s Sport.” Ulk, 19 August 1921, 131. 73 Figure 2.3. “Th e Modern Sporting Lady.” Die Dame, First April Issue 1926, 8. 76 Figures 2.4 and 2.5. “One and the Same Woman: Hurdling Champion Mrs Engelhardt-Becker in Action and at the Domestic Ironing Board.” Uhu, April 1933, 10–11. 83 Figure 2.6. “Sporting Camaraderie between Man and Woman: Th e Young Generation on the Sporting Fields.” Uhu, June 1933, 19. 85 Figure 3.1. “Th e Poet.” Ulk, 2 December 1927, 375. 98 Figure 3.2. “Th e Infl uence of Inner Secretion on Body and Soul.” Uhu, November 1924, 89. 104 Figure 3.3. “Spring 1926: Even the Stork Is Confused!” Ulk, 12 March 1926. 106 Figure 3.4. “‘Captain Barker,’ the London Fascist Leader.” Uhu, May 1929, 25. 114 Figure 3.5. Cover image, Garçonne, October 1930. 118 Figure 4.1. “Th e Boy: Photograph of the American Star Miss Percy in Flattering Costume.” Das Magazin, June 1925, 67. 131 Figure 4.2. “Rahna.” Das Magazin, September 1927, 1337. 135 Figure 4.3. Manuela during rehearsal, Mädchen in Uniform. (Germany, 1931) Dir. Leontine Sagan. 145 Figure 4.4. Manuela as Don Carlos, Mädchen in Uniform. (Germany, 1931) Dir. Leontine Sagan. 146 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Research for this book was enabled by funding from the German Academic Ex- change Service (DAAD) and the Australian government. Institutional support was provided by the University of Melbourne, and by the following German institutions, whose archivists, librarians, and curators I would like to thank for assisting me in my research and granting permission to reprint images from their collections: the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin together with the BPK Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, the libraries of the Humboldt-Universität and Freie Universität, the Berlin Kunstbibliothek (SMB), the Deutsche Kinemathek, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek in Leipzig, and the Lesbenarchiv Spinnboden (Berlin). I am extremely grateful to a number of individuals who read and com- mented on various versions of the manuscript. My deepest thanks go to Alison Lewis for her encouraging and thought-provoking feedback throughout the life of this project. Many thanks also to Heather Benbow, Birgit Lang, Leo Kret- zenbacher, Sara Lennox, Kerstin Barndt, the anonymous readers for Berghahn Books, and several members of Women in German for their helpful comments. In addition, I would like to thank Erhard Schütz for advice on source materials, Brangwen Stone for her marvelous proofreading, and the careful copyeditors at Berghahn. My family has been very supportive and I thank them here, as well as Helen and Tassilo Bonzel, Maria Schmillenkamp, Udo Tober, and Omama, who shared with me the story of how she snuck off to Cologne to get her fi rst Bu- bikopf. Finally, my wholehearted thanks go to Katharina Bonzel, who supported this project from start to fi nish in so many ways. Earlier versions of several sections of this study have previously appeared in German Politics and Society, the Edinburgh German Yearbook, From Weimar to Christiania: German and Scandinavian Studies in Context (ed.